Feasting for Lent

 To our Ash Wednesday service this evening, with an introduction to our Lent book and sermon series 'A Meal with Jesus' . The author, Tim Chester, points out that 'in Luke's gospel, Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal', and that Jesus was described as 'a glutton and a drunkard'  by those who couldn't (or wouldn't) understand him. 

Jesus uses food to connect with people - just as we do around a table at Costa or the kitchen / dinner table at home - to some effect. He connects with the powerful and the poor, the outcast and the hungry, as well as his disciples then and now (through the Last Supper / Communion Table).

The encounters around food in Luke's gospel are powerful ones: Jesus' identity is revealed in the Feeding of the 5,000 and the supper at Emmaus - he acts in a god-like way as he provides bread; his words about the abundant life he has come to bring are given smell, taste and touch as he provides tangible evidence of the generosity and grace of God. And it is not just subsistence living that Jesus offers - there are baskets full of food left over in the feeding miracles; there is a ridiculous amount of fish in the disciples' net; there is not just enough wine to save embarrassment at the wedding in Canaa, but water jars full of the 'best wine'. It is good to be with Jesus - his life is life in all its fullness.

Tim Chesters book offers a great insight into how Jesus used food to connect with people, and then challenges us to do the same. To be people who share grace and community together, and then offer the same to those around us.

I issued an invitation to the congregation this evening: not to give up chocolate or beer, but to give up a place or two at their kitchen / dining table over coming weeks and to invite people in to share a meal with them. And not to 'put to death the flesh' (a good Lent phrase), but to put to death the fears that stop us opening up our lives and our tables to others.

I'm available for an invitation...